IntersectMBO/cardano-node 1.25.1

Cardano Node 1.25.1

on GitHub

This release is expected to be the final release for the upcoming Mary hard fork, and everyone must upgrade to this (or a later) version to cross the Mary hard fork.

The Mary hard fork introduces native token functionality to Cardano. This is directly useful and is also one of the significant building blocks for the later Goguen smart contracts.

A launchpad testnet for the native token functionality has been running since December, using the cardano-node 1.24.2 release. This 1.25.1 release contains relatively minor changes for the Mary era compared to the 1.24.2 release. It is nevertheless not compatible with the 1.24.2 version and the existing testnet. The launchpad testnet will not be restarted and will remain on 1.24.2. Public testnet and staging have been upgraded to 1.25.1. If you have already tested integration with the existing launchpad testnet then no new integration work is expected for this release other than upgrading the node version and moving to the staging or public testnet.

Exchanges and other users that integrate closely with Cardano must take action to test their integration before the transition takes place on mainnet. Exchanges can use launchpad or staging, SPOs can use staging, and everyone should use public testnet once it forks. Staging will go through the Mary hard fork on 28th January, and public testnet will go through the Mary hard fork during week commencing 1st February. The native token functionality does have an impact for all custom wallet implementations: it is not a feature that can be ignored and remain compatible. All addresses are capable of receiving native tokens.

Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) and Exchanges should take note that the metric namespace has undergone consolidation, so all metrics now reside in cardano.node.metrics:

• cardano.node.Forge.metrics.* -> cardano.node.metrics.Forge.*
• cardano.node.ChainDB.metrics.* -> cardano.node.metrics.ChainDB.*
• cardano.node.BlockFetchDecision.connectedPeers -> cardano.node.metrics.connectedPeers

The node configs require no changes, but allow dropping entries that became redundant: wherever cardano.node.Forge.metrics.*, cardano.node.ChainDB.metrics.* or cardano.node.BlockFetchDecision.connectedPeers were mentioned, those entries can be removed. Only cardano.node.metric needs to remain. Please see #2281 for further details.

This release uses a new cabal snapshot so could be rather resource intensive when building for the first time.

Node changes

• All metrics now use a common name prefix cardano.node.metrics. This requires a one-off change to the node configuration to route all metrics to the metrics backend and not have them in the log files. This should reduce the number of such changes in future. (#2281)
• More detailed tracer output for protocol tracers (#2178)

Consensus changes

• Improve the handling of the encoding of local IPC queries by older clients that do not understand later hard forks. In future this should mean that clients that do not understand a hard fork only fail at the time of the hard fork itself, and not earlier when the update proposal is confirmed (#2818)
• New query for rewards provenance. This is intended to help wallets explain more details about rewards, and to help SPOs and users better understand how pools' performance and ranking are calculated. This is not yet supported in the CLI in this release. (#2830)
• Support for using multiple leader credentials for the purpose of running large scale benchmarks. It supported in testnets only, not mainnet (#2832)
• Support in testnets for skipping initial eras. This makes it easier and quicker to automate the setup of Cardano-mode testnets that start in later eras, such as Allegra or Mary. This enables simplifications in the setup for integration tests or benchmarks (#2811)
• A first draft of a technical report on the design and the internals of the Cardano consensus and storage layer (#2663, #2838, #2841, #2842, #2853)

Ledger changes

• Enforce the size of multi-asset names, to match the specification (#2074)
• Minor change to the ledger CDDL binary specification for the Mary era: restrict the range of multi-asset values to -2^63..2^63-1 where previously the allowed range was -2^64..2^64-1 (#2092)
• Rename fields in the ledger's CDDL binary specification for clarity and consistency, but no actual changes to the binary format (#2045)
• Change the minimum ada UTxO value formula for multi-asset values to better reflect the resource costs and to pass on savings (in the form of a lower minimum ada UTxO value) for applications that use smaller asset bundles by sharing policy ids or using shorter asset names (#2107)
• Improvements to the size of the internal storage format of multi-asset values, enabling a lower minimum ada UTxO value for multi-asset output values (#2083)
• Restrict the maximum size of multi-asset output values (#2099)
• Terminology change: the metadata section is renamed to "auxiliary data" to distinguish it from the existing transaction metadata (#2052)
• Extra documentation on native tokens (#2046)
• Progress on the new Alonzo era (#2022, #2055, #2061, #2062, #2067, #2077, #2087, #2088, #2095)

Network changes

• Internal infrastructure to support seeding the P2P graph construction from the SPO relays registered on the chain, weighted by stake (#2535, #2536)
• Introduce v6 of the node-to-node protocol where we reverse the initial agency of the tx-submission protocol to match the others. This is preparation for the P2P governor which requires the initial agency for mini-protocols to be uniform (#2807)
• Introduce v8 of the node-to-client protocol with an extension to the local query protocol that allows acquiring the point at the node's current chain tip, without having to provide that point explicitly. Using this simplifies things for node clients for the common use case where the current tip is needed, and eliminates a rare race condition (#2875)
• Fix a resource leak for chain-sync clients (#2235, #2870, #2888)
• Tracing improvements for the mux component (#2794)

Cardano-cli changes

• Allow creating transactions with no outputs (#2223, #2226)
• Improved error messages for syntax errors in out-of-range lovelace quantities in transaction outputs (#2063, #2079)
• Improved reference documentation for simple scripts and their use (#2165)
• Remove support for changing the delegation from Genesis keys to operational keys in the Byron era. This feature was never used on the mainnet during the Byron era. (#2219)
• Clearer usage information in the CLI --help output (#2203)

Cardano-api changes

• New IPC modules for easier interaction with the node, including support for all existing local state queries (#2230, #2238, #2263, #2277, #2286)
• API support for Byron era update proposals and votes (#2209, #2271)
• Make Cardano.Api the primary public module for the API.
• API support for serialising multi-asset PolicyId and AssetName (#2270)
• API for pretty-printing JSON output (#2103)
• More precise error cases for tx outputs that are out of range (#2217)
• Host up-to-date generated API documentation via github https://input-output-hk.github.io/cardano-node/ (#2273, #2276, #2278)

Documentation

• Cardano Node documentation
• Cardano CLI
• Internal API docs for ledger, consensus and network
• Configuration files

Platforms

• Linux 64-bit (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, 20.04 LTS; Mint 19.3, 20; Debian 10.3)
• Windows 64-bit (8.1, 10)
• MacOS 10.13, 10.14, 10.15
• Docker image

Supported roles

Minimum System Requirements

• An Intel or AMD x86 processor with two or more cores, at 1.6GHz or faster (2GHz or faster for a stake pool or relay)
• 4GB of RAM (8GB for a relay or stake pool)
• 10GB of free storage (20GB for a stake pool)

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